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Public gets its first peek at renovated Union Station

By Jesse PaulThe Denver Post

Posted:
07/26/2014 01:37:10 PM MDT

Updated:
07/28/2014 08:21:15 AM MDT

Denver Union Station hosts a public event for their grand opening celebration featuring food trucks and live music on Wynkoop Street and free tours of the building. (Kathryn Scott Osler, The Denver Post)

Pauline Brown's Saturday started with an unwelcome surprise.

When the 94-year-old's daughter knocked on the door of her Lakewood home, Brown thought they were headed to a movie. As they approached Union Station, Brown realized it wasn't a film they were headed to, but rather a glimpse of her past.

Brown worked for years as a secretary for the Colorado Bureau of Investigation — a job she admits she didn't love — at an office just down the hall from where Phil Anschutz, who later became a billionaire, began his empire in the station. When Brown's daughter heard that the newly remodeled station would be opening to the public Saturday, she soon knew she wanted to bring her mother back.

As Brown, born just a few years after Union Station first opened, walked from the sweltering heat into the cool air inside the new station, what she initially viewed as a sour surprise quickly became a happy trip down memory lane. Lifting her head upward, she smiled.

"Just like another century," she said, looking at the pristine white ceiling over the new shops and hotel. "They've done a beautiful job."

Memories were plentiful Saturday morning as the refurbished station officially opened its doors to the public. Thousands flocked to the blocked-off streets around the area where food carts, music, beer and ice cream stood ready for excited patrons.

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